A missing woman was allegedly scammed out of thousands of dollars by people she hired to do work in her home, and police are saying there may be a connection between that case and her disappearance.

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Leesburg police are not identifying the people named in the fraud report filed last March because they believe it is possible, or even likely that those individuals may know something about the disappearance of Bernadine Montgomery, 84.

An employee of a West Leesburg company told police in March that someone was charging Montgomery $5,000 to build a bookcase and $26,000 for other unspecified work.

Police said these were fraudulent overcharges and wanted to prosecute, but Montgomery declined to cooperate.

“We still tried to move forward, and presented it to the state attorney's office for prosecution but their general protocol is, without cooperation of the victim, they're not going to move forward,” Lt. Joe Iozzi said.

Montgomery disappeared earlier this month. Her car was found abandoned at a local park.

Last week, police arrested Jeremy Gentry on charges of grand theft after learning he was the one they believe had been driving Montgomery’s car.

According to arrest records, Gentry told police he did not know what happened to Montgomery because he’d been using drugs.